Scope: Literary criticism is the evaluation, analysis, description, or interpretation of literary works. It is usually in the form of a critical essay, but in-depth book reviews can sometimes be considered literary criticism. Criticism may examine a particular literary work, or may look at an author's writings as a whole. This is a guide to literary criticism resources available through the PHS library’s subscription databases and previewed free websites.
Keywords: Use your author to find biographical information and information about her/his body of work. Use specific titles to find criticism about particular works. Use the Boolean search terms "Author AND criticism" literary criticism about your author in the Library's catalog.
Artemis: Portal to our literary criticism databases.
NoveList Plus Database of 150,000 fiction titles, and over 4000 custom created articles and lists, including feature articles, BookTalks, Book Discussion Guides, Author Readalikes, and Readers' Advisory training content and a variety of other reader and staff materials.
TeachingBooks.net: If you read fiction and nonfiction books in any discipline or setting, TeachingBooks.net's database of instructional materials will enliven your K–12 reading and library activities.
Twayne's Author Series: Comprises 600 full-text titles from the Twayne Literary Masters Series, 200 each from Twayne World, US, and English authors.
Biographies--including authors and their work
Biography in Context: This database integrates biographies from Gale Group sources with related full-text articles from hundreds of periodicals, as well as tens of thousands of images and links to hand-picked web sites.
Free Websites:
eNotes Literary Criticism: The criticism collection includes more than 40,000 full-length or excerpted essays, spanning more than 25 years of literary criticism. There are some free resources; for others you need a paid subscription.
Scope: Literary criticism is the evaluation, analysis, description, or interpretation of literary works. It is usually in the form of a critical essay, but in-depth book reviews can sometimes be considered literary criticism. Criticism may examine a particular literary work, or may look at an author's writings as a whole. This is a guide to literary criticism resources available through the PHS library’s subscription databases and previewed free websites.
Keywords: Use your author to find biographical information and information about her/his body of work. Use specific titles to find criticism about particular works. Use the Boolean search terms "Author AND criticism" literary criticism about your author in the Library's catalog.
Subscription Databases
Link to Database password Page
For Criticism:
Artemis: Portal to our literary criticism databases.
Twayne's Author Series: Comprises 600 full-text titles from the Twayne Literary Masters Series, 200 each from Twayne World, US, and English authors.
Biographies--including authors and their work
Free Websites:
Indices of American Authors:
Still not finding information? Try a title search at Amazon.com. Scroll down to “Editorial Reviews.”
Sierra College Writing Center